Swallower (Darkness/Aether deck)
This is an editted version of a fun deck I found a while ago on this wiki, but now I can't seem to locate it. I thought I'd paste in my version of it. The Deck Strategy This deck relies on shutting out the enemy's quanta production. Get your pillars and pendulums out as soon as they're drawn. Your biggest priority is to get the Devourers out as fast as possible. You have no Obsidian Pillars, so you're restricted to getting more than one Darkness quanta to every two turns without the Devourers. As soon as you can, use Fractal on a Devourer to fill your hand with them. Getting these creatures out quickly will make the rest of the match easy, as your opponent will be completely unable to play his hand. Once that's done, spawn your Minor Vampires to deal damage and heal yourself in case you've taken any. While the 2|2 might seem weak at first, remember that their vampirism ability makes it a net gain of 4. If your Devourers outmatch their quanta production, use Fractal on the vampires to speed up the process of defeating your opponent. Also, your Devourers' consume skill cannot be removed by the Lobotomizer/Electrocutor or Mind Flayers/Ulitharids, though their burrow ability can. Do not be alarmed if an ability destroyer is used against them. Your vampires, however, can lose their vampirism ability. If you're unable to shut them out at the very beginning, such as due to a bad draw or Rainbow deck, Nightfall is useful for vastly improving your attack power, and it also helps against shields, one of the biggest problems this deck faces. If your opponent is shut out but still managed to get a few creatures on the field, I recommend not using Nightfall, as that will severely decrease your chances of getting an Elemental Mastery. The Lobotomizer and Dusk Mantle are both useful if you don't manage to shut out the enemy quickly enough. I would always have the Mantle out just in case, but as with Nightfall, don't use the Lobotmizer unless you need the extra damage, as again it hurts your chances of getting that Elemental Mastery. 'Pros' *When played correctly, this deck is extremely effective at rendering your opponent completely helpless as he is unable to play a single card against you. *Elemental Masteries are easy, I can very consistently get one against almost all Level 3 AI decks completely unupgraded. *As you have both pillars and towers, and a lot of them, you are protected from most permanent control. It should only really be an issue if it's early, or there's a lot of it. *Bone Wall, normally one of the best shields in the game if used correctly, can't stand up against your easily spammable, Fractaled army. 'Cons' *The deck has been kept to 30 cards to minimize the chances of this, but this deck is very early game reliant. A bad starting hand can be your demise. This also means that stalling decks can easily outdeck you, you only have 24 turns to win. *Unless you've upgraded to Vampires, every single shield in the game (with the exception of Gravity Shield, and maybe Bone Wall) is a serious hindrance to you. With no permanent control, your opponent can out-deck you with damage reduction shields, or kill all your creatures very quickly with damaging shields. Be aware that at 4|3, your Vampires are susceptible to Maxwell's Demons. They also cost 5 quanta instead of just 3. *Creature control is also a serious problem, as while unupgraded, all of your creatures only have 2 HP. With Nightfall/Eclipse, this is bumped up to 3, but it still makes your entire side of the field susceptible to Rain of Fire. Upgraded Devourers, Pests, have 4 HP, which eliminates this threat. And hopefully your opponent never reaches enough quanta to play cards such as that. *Rainbow decks will eliminate your ability to shut out your opponent, as each tower produces 3 quanta instead of just one. However, having many Devourers on the field will still give you an ample supply of Darkness quanta with which to play your hand. *As with any duo deck, an early Discord or other quanta denial will slow you down. *Finally, the Sanctuary card from the Light deck prevents the user's quanta pool from being modified, which shuts out your Devourers completely, and makes this deck very difficult to use effectively. 'Upgrade Order' *Fractal is first priority I think. This reduces the cost from 10 to 9 quanta, which is quite a lot when your main source of Aether quanta is pendulums rather than pillars. Remember that while it costs that much to use, Fractal consumes all of your Aether quanta when cast. *Dusk Mantle is a good second. It reduces the cost from 6 to 4 Darkness quanta, making it much easier to obtain. *Upgrading Nightfall increases the bonus from +1|+1 to +2|+1, but also increases the cost from 3 to 4 Darkness quanta. This will greatly increase the attack power of your deck, and allow your Devourers to bypass all damage reduction shields, with the exception of the Titanium Shield/Diamond Shield and, depending on the creatures your enemy has, Hope. Maxwell's Demons will be able to target your Minor Vampires if this is used. *Devourers should be next. Pests are a straight upgrade, increasing their HP from 2 to 4 while keeping the same cost. This allows them to survive mass creature control cards such as Rain of Fire. *Lobotomizer should be next. This reduces the special ability cost from 2 to 1 Aether quanta, allowing you to save more while saving up for another Fractal. *Next, the pillars and pendulums, it doesn't matter which order. This will give you an extra Aether quanta when you play them, speeding up the process of getting that Fractal. *Finally, the Vampires are a double edged sword. While it increases their stats to 4|3, it also increases the cost of summoning to 5 Darkness quanta, from 3. This greatly reduces your ability to Fractal spam them, but also doubles their damage and increases their survivability. This technically gives you more power per quanta use, but depending on your enemy, quantity could be preferable to quality. I would only upgrade 2 of the 3 into Vampires.